Through the NSC Alliance partnership with the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), the NSC Alliance has access to the AIBS Legislative Action Center (http://capwiz.com/aibs/home). This tool allows you to quickly send a letter to your members of Congress to share your perspectives on policy issues.

Congress is working on fiscal year (FY) 2010 appropriations legislation for key science agencies. At this time, spending plans for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) are moving quickly though the House of Representatives. The Senate is expected to consider science appropriations measures in the coming weeks. For these reasons, it is important that members of Congress hear from the science community today about the importance of these and other federal science agencies.

The House is expected to pass an FY 2010 appropriation for NSF that is just below the President’s budget request. It is not clear if the Senate will provide the same, more, or less funding for NSF. Thus, it is important that you send a message to your Senators today requesting that they support the President’s FY 2010 budget request for the NSF. You may send a prepared letter by going to http://capwiz.com/aibs/issues/alert/?alertid=13554031, or you may personalize the letter to demonstrate why funding for NSF and other science agencies is important to your natural science collection.

The House Appropriations Committee is also working on its FY 2010 appropriations for Interior and Environment, which includes agencies such as the United States Geological Survey. At this time, it is expected that USGS may receive slightly ($8 million) more than the President’s FY 2010 budget request. It is important that your Representatives know that this funding is important. So, please consider sending a letter in support of the USGS by clicking http://capwiz.com/aibs/issues/alert/?alertid=13540291.

If you would like to craft your own letter of support for these or any other science agency, you may do so by simply registering for the Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/aibs/home and then selecting your members of Congress.